The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head and, more particularly, to a thin film magnetic head capable of recording and reproducing data accurately by providing a sufficient gap between terminals while providing each terminal with a required area.
A conventional thin film magnetic head has a slider provided with a pair of rail portions at opposite sides thereof in the widthwise direction. Magnetic elements are located on the end of the slider which faces the rail portions. Gaps each form part of the respective magnetic element and is open to the outside on the surface of the associated rail portion. Two leads extend out from each magnetic element and terminate at a respective terminal. All the terminals have an identical elongate configuration extending in the widthwise direction of the slider and are arranged side by side along the thickness of the slider.
Metal wires are connected to the terminals by wire bonding. A gold terminal is provided on each terminal to enhance the contact resistance and bonding strength to the wires as well as erosion resistance. Such gold terminals are several microns thick and broader in area than the terminals. Specifically, it has been customary to provide the terminals on the slider, overcoat the slider with alumina (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3) by sputtering, lap the surface of the slider to cause the terminals to appear, and then plate the terminals with gold.
A current trend in the magnetic recording and reproduction art is toward the down-sizing of a thin film magnetic head and, therefore,the associated terminals require small areas. However, each terminal should be provided with some area matching the limited positioning accuracy available with a wire bonding device. In such a dilemmatic situation, it is necessary to reduce the distance between the adjoining terminals which are connected to the same magnetic element. If the distance between the terminals is short, it is likely that Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 fails to fill up the gap between the terminals in the event of overcoating and leaves it void. Moreover, should impurities be introduced in the void during the course of matching of the slider, they would bring about erosion and dust problems to thereby obstruct reliable data recording and reproduction. Although an implementation for eliminating these problems is taught in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication (Kokai) No. 62-73410, it has some problems left unsolved.